Chamber and committees

I announced on 12th August that I have accepted the DDRB recommendation of a 3% pay uplift for 2021-22. This award recognises the unprecedented year that NHS Scotland has faced, and ensures that Doctors in Scotland continue to be the best paid in the United Kingdom.

Our thoughts and condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who have recently lost their lives in water-related incidents.

Ensuring that every child learns to swim is a priority for both Scottish Swimming and the Scottish Government. The National Learn to Swim Framework, which is supported by Scottish Water and delivered by aquatic partners every week, already helps children to become safe, competent, and confident swimmers and these water safety themed lessons are an essential part of the Framework to help educate on water safety.

Within schools, Curriculum for Excellence’s flexible guidelines allow teachers to decide upon the content of lessons that best meets the local needs and circumstances of all children and young people in attendance. However, we are working with stakeholders consider the greater opportunities for children and young people to engage in community swimming lessons.

On 1 December 2020 Joe Fitzpatrick, the then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing commissioned leading HIV experts to deliver a proposal for how Scotland can become one of the first countries to eliminate HIV transmission by 2030.

This proposal will form the basis for a framework to eliminate HIV by 2030, which was a commitment in the 2021 SNP manifesto. It will contain advice on definitions, targets and monitoring outcomes, as well as ways to ensure capacity to report timely data. It will also consider current HIV epidemiology, detection and testing to find undiagnosed HIV. Interventions designed to prevent HIV transmission through differing routes will be reviewed, most notably through sharing of injecting equipment and sexual transmission. As this is a complex subject, the work to develop the proposal will take place over the remainder of 2021 and will be shaped by a wide variety of stakeholders, including clinicians, third sector organisations and people living with HIV.

We want everyone who would benefit from palliative and end of life care to have access to it, including those who are homeless. As the Marie Curie report makes clear, good end of life care requires collaborative, multi-disciplinary support which is based on the specific needs of the individual and their loved ones. However, we know that people experiencing homelessness are less likely to engage with healthcare services regularly and are more likely to have multiple mental or physical health problems - often with uncertain trajectories. This can make it challenging for care and support services to recognise a palliative care need in a timely manner.

To support better identification of the healthcare needs of homeless people, Public Health Scotland published a learning resource primarily aimed at primary care staff earlier this year. The course aims to raise awareness of the health challenges and barriers that homeless people face and support staff in better identifying the health and care needs of people who are homeless. Although the course has been developed with primary care staff in mind as they act as first healthcare points of contact, it is a foundation level course which is accessible and relevant to all staff working with people who are homeless, particularly those working in frontline homelessness services. This course can be accessed here: https://learning.publichealthscotland.scot/course/view.php?id=553

Over the coming months we will continue to work with key stakeholders to explore what further steps we can take to help ensure that people who are experiencing homelessness can access the palliative care and support that is right for them.

We want everyone who would benefit from palliative and end of life care to have access to it, including those who are experiencing homelessness.

We are committed to working with key stakeholders to strengthen partnerships between health, homelessness and frontline services to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness with multiple and complex needs. Over the coming months we will continue to work with stakeholders to explore areas where improvements to palliative and end of life care could be made as well as reflecting on lessons learned during the pandemic.

I would also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-01041 on
22 July 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of ensuring that high quality, person centred bereavement care and support is available for all those who need it, including people experiencing homelessness. Each person’s experience of bereavement is unique as are their support requirements. That is why we undertake a broad range of work to improve the bereavement care and support available for those who need it, particularly at this difficult time.

Since 2016 the Scottish Government has funded Cruse Scotland and Child Bereavement UK through the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund to provide support to individuals and families who have been bereaved, including those who are homeless. This Fund has been extended to end March 2022 to provide greater stability to organisations and we will announce in due course plans for funding the third sector from April 2022.

Our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, published in October 2020, sets out a number of commitments to support the mental health of people following bereavement and we will continue to engage with providers of bereavement support, and people with lived experience of bereavement.

We will continue to work closely with NHS Boards, Integration Authorities and third sector organisations, including those delivering homelessness services, to continually revisit our work in this area and respond to the needs of individuals and families arising from the pandemic and provide additional support where needed.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00977 on 22 July 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers  

Since the publication of the rehabilitation framework in August 2020, we have established a National Advisory Board to oversee its implementation and we have appointed a professional advisor to lead on this programme of work.  

The rehabilitation programme is currently undertaking a significant scoping exercise through a self-assessment process to understand the current status of rehabilitation services in Scotland, from the perspective of the staff working in them.  

The self-assessment tool has been circulated to all NHS Boards, Health & Social Care Partnerships, third sector organisations, and Leisure Trusts as part of Local Authorities.  

The outputs from the self-assessment tool along with demand and capacity data will help us shape priorities, understand challenges and opportunities and inform funding decisions.